Kentucky’s 90,000 miles of waterways drain into the Mississippi River, which provides two-thirds of the freshwater that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Excessive nutrients carried by the Mississippi River contribute to the hypoxic zone (or Dead Zone) in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in low oxygen levels that cannot support fish and other aquatic organism populations. Since 2014 Extension specialists from the University of Kentucky (UK) have participated with colleagues at 11 other land-grant institutions in the Mississippi River basin as SERA-46 (Southern Extension-Research Activity-46), a multi-state partnership working alongside state and federal agencies to address water quality issues contributing to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone. The team has garnered financial support from the U.S. EPA as well as private foundations to conduct work identified through collaboration with state and federal agencies. Outputs include stakeholder workshops, state-based science assessments, as well as multiple refereed journal articles and Extension publications. A UK Extension specialist has served as lead co-chair for the group over the past year, representing the group at a Congressional briefing in Washington, DC as well as multiple regional meetings. The lead co-chair’s role is to keep the team on target toward shared goals with the federal Hypoxia Task Force as well as foster relationships with federal and state agency and private entity partners. The UK Extension specialist has used this experience and exposure to encourage greater Kentucky-based state agency involvement, generate additional multi-state collaborations, and invite additional UK faculty and staff into the effort. The team was nominated in early 2018 for an Excellence in Multistate Research award from the Southern Region Experiment Station directors.